China's Territorial Ambitions Linked to Mining Assets and Conflict

"China is pouring enormous resources in an effort to emerge a a world-leading oceanographic power."

"[With mapping of this nature], you can use it for science, and you can use it for warfare."

Bruce Jones, naval affairs and foreign policy expert, Brookings Institution

 

"Dozens of Chinese research vessels are on a quest to map the sea floor at strategically vital regions of the world's oceans."

"Some of the surveying is for mineral deposits and fishing grounds, but the data the ships collect has a military application."

"It gives Beijing a detailed picture of the maritime environment in which submarine battles will be waged if conflict erupts, naval experts say."

Reuters 

 

"The scale of what they’re doing is about more than just resources."

"If you look at the sheer extent of it, it’s very clear that they intend to have an expeditionary blue-water naval capability that also is built around submarine operations."

Jennifer Parker, adjunct professor of defense and security, University of Western Australia; former Australian anti-submarine warfare officer 

 

"It is frankly astonishing to see the enormous scale of Chinese marine scientific research."

"For decades, the U.S. Navy could assume an asymmetric advantage in its knowledge of the ocean battlespace."

"[China’s efforts] threaten to erode that advantage. It is obviously deeply concerning."

Ryan Martinson, associate professor, Chinese maritime strategy, U.S. Naval War College   

The Dong Fang Hong 3 docked in Qingdao, Shandong province. The research ship, whose name translates to "The East is Red," spent 2024 and 2025 moving back and forth in the seas near Taiwan and Guam, and around strategic stretches of the Indian Ocean, ship-tracking data shows. Cnsphoto via REUTERS

 

An atlas of deep-sea mineral deposits was recently published by a research arm of the Chinese government, highlighting Beijing's aspirations to mine the ocean floor, while  underscoring its claims to waters disputed by its geographic neighbours. The maps as well as pinpointing mineral deposits on the ocean bottom, supply the Chinese military with a deep understanding of the seafloor in strategically vital waters. According to experts, this provides Beijing with a clear advantage, should submarine warfare ever break out.

 

Pressure has been placed on other countries ramping up similar efforts, in the wake of the China Geological Survey announcement. The need for other countries to engage in similar oceanographic mapping is critical to reducing dependence on China for critical minerals and rare earth elements which at present, Beijing controls to a great extent globally. It has been well proven that ocean sediments are richly endowed with valuable resources, among them cobalt, nickel and manganese.

 

The USS Minnesota in Western Australia in February 2025. China's mapping of the ocean floor has often focused on areas through which U.S. and allied submarines would need to move during a conflict. U.S. Navy/Lt. Corey Todd Jones/Handout via REUTERS

 

Historically, the United States dominated in ocean-science fields. China has been investing in changing that to its advantage; closing the gap, equipping its military with knowledge enabling it to fight underwater, fear Western experts. The recently published atlas, according to the China Geological Survey website, maps locations and concentrations of a myriad of resources, data amassed from two decades of research and samplings at over 10,000 locations.

 

The atlas included the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea, where Beijing aggressively claims territory, despite that its neighbours have historically considered those territories to be theirs. With control of the majority of the world's key critical metals and rare earth resources essential in modern weapons and technologies, Beijing's dominance has its political dimension, as when it chose to restrict exports during disputes with both the United States and Japan.

 

For its part, Japan is developing its own seabed mining program, partially in a bid to reduce  reliance on Chinese supplies. The Japanese government in February announced that it had  retrieved mud rich in rare earths from depths of over 6,000 meters. International law customs determining national boundaries do exist.  However, occupying and managing a territory can serve the purpose of heavily supporting a nation's claim to owning it, simply by consistent presence.

 

And this appears to be China's modus operandi; to have a presence on disputed territory; land, sea or air. In the territorial waters of other countries, Chinese deep-sea exploration ships have made frequent appearances; including close to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska; as far from actual Chinese territory as can be imagined. Closer to home, China has tested seabed mining equipment in areas claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines.

 

Nuclear-powered Type 094A Jin-class Chinese ballistic missile submarines in the South China Sea in 2018. By mapping and monitoring the oceans, China is gathering critical data to deploy its submarines more effectively and hunt down those of its adversaries, naval-warfare experts say. REUTERS/Stringer

 

 

 

Beijing's Designs...

"China is always willing to work together with the Canadian side, by following the principle of mutual respect, seeking common ground while reserving differences."

"But China also opposes any country using China as a bargaining chip when it deals with other countries." 

"But of course, to reach such an agreement [free trade deal], both sides need to work in the same direction toward the same goal."

"When I was having conversations with Canadian friends from all walks of life, all sectors here in Canada, I heard a strong voice that China and Canada should strengthen co-operation."

"But unfortunately, at the same time, oftentimes we see some disrespect and smearing and attacking of China's core interests."

"China firmly supports Canada’s sovereignty and territorial integrity just as China supports that of all the other countries, but of course we hope this kind of respect is mutual."

China's Ambassador to Canada, Wang Di

"I hope that companies between our two countries can enjoy a transparent, open and non-discriminatory business environment," says China's Ambassador to Canada Di Wang. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press/

China's core interests are wound up in its approach to world dominance in trade and achieving the status of a world power equal to that of the United States of America. Everything that Beijing does is calibrated to achieve those ends. And China is relentless in its self-actualizing mission of achieving its divinely inspired destiny as a super-hegemon. Its links throughout the world -- in North America, Europe, Australia, Africa, the Middle East are geared to creating a type of dependence beginning with trade and ending with dominating world markets in chemicals and organic matter critical to new-age technology.

 

China first ingratiates itself internationally, then demands respect and collaboration as it paternally guides countries which have been infiltrated by expatriate mainland Chinese through cultural indoctrination to instill admiration for the Peoples Republic of China. Its intelligence agents are everywhere, its social media sites dominate markets, its modern version of the Yellow Silk Road -- Belt and Road Initiative through investment and critical domestic infrastructure loans throughout the world have created dependencies inimical to the countries involved, becoming indebted beyond their ability to persevere.

 

And nothing seems to stop China's subterfuges and self-entitlements in maneuvering its operatives subtly into local culture and positions of social and academic, scientific and political advantage to Beijing, where infiltrated operatives deliver what they glean to their sponsors. Trade secrets, scientific advances, political positions, military situations, are all grist for the Beijing mill of conquest and control. As for respecting other countries' borders, Chinese interest in the Arctic to challenge Canada's North West Passage in the interests of vast mineral resources' acquisition is another story.

 

The government of Canada is warned by China's ambassador against using it as "bargaining chip" in its trade negotiations with the United States, even while holding out the carrot of pursuing a bilateral free trade agreement as long as Canada remove barriers to Chinese investment.Those barriers are there for a specific reason, that Canada has no interest in having its natural resources under the control of a foreign government which has on many occasions displayed its acquisition agenda to the detriment of Canada's national interests. 

Diplomatic relations between Ottawa and Beijing which is at present Canada's second-largest trading partner have cooled considerably beginning when Huawei Technologies Co. executive Meng Wanzhou had been detained in 2018 at the request of the U.S. through an extradition warrant at Vancouver's International Airport which led to China arresting two Canadian businessmen then in China, as retaliatory hostages in claims of espionage charged against the two. More recently four Canadians were sentenced to death on charges of drug smuggling in China. The dual-citizens were executed over their presumed 'drug crimes'.

 

In August, Canada announced its intention to match the U.S. higher tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, aluminum and steel, prompting China to enact retaliatory measures against Canadian canola, pork and seafood, impacting Western Canada. Chinese investment in critical mineral projects have been curbed in Canada, Huawei has been banned from fifth-generation wireless networks, and TikTok's parent, ByteDance Ltd. was ordered to close its Canadian subsidiary.

 

China, however, is consumed with its energy needs to power its growing technology functionality and Canada is more than willing to sell energy to China in the form of oil exports and liquefied natural gas.  As for claims by security intelligence officials in Canada that China, along with countries that include India and Russia, may attempt interference in the federal election now  underway in Canada, Mr. Wang characterized them as "completely unjustified, groundless accusations", despite ample evidence in the not-so-distant past that Beijing has done just that.

"At the core of the Chinese strategy is asymmetric interdependence that allows for its weaponization of trading relations … on other countries that cannot easily pivot away from a reliance on Chinese sources."

"By pre-emptively diversifying exports of easily substitutable products that are vulnerable to asymmetrical transactions, we could reduce the leverage that adversaries might otherwise seek to exploit."

University of Toronto political scientist Lynette Ong

China's Ambassador-designate to Canada Wang Di presents his credentials to Governor General Mary Simon during ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 26, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Grimly Alarming 'War Games'

Photo: AFP

"China’s DF-26, an anti-ship missile tested and 'demonstrated' by the People’s Liberation Army reportedly able to travel 2,000 miles to destroy carriers, does present a credible threat to be taken seriously. Yet much of the hype seems to leave out certain critical comments made by senior U.S. Navy leaders and various adaptations the modern Navy has made to respond to or 'counter' China’s often-discussed A2/AD (anti-access/area denial) strategy."

"With a range of up to 2,500 miles and 4,000-pound payload, with satellite targeting the DF-26 in theory could strike U.S. Navy warships across the western Pacific Ocean. 'Even when launched from deeper inland areas of China, the DF-26 has a range far-reaching enough to cover the South China Sea', an unnamed military expert told Global Times in a report several years ago."

"However, upon closer examination and careful reading of public comments from senior Navy officials, there certainly seems to be room for debate on this question. While certainly nobody questions the seriousness of a threat of this kind, and clearly the Chinese weapons are taken seriously, yet some of the threat language might accurately be assessed as 'hype' given the steady stream of ongoing advances in layered Carrier and Carrier Strike Group defenses."

Kris Osborn, Military Affairs Editor, 19FortyFive, President, Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization

DF-26

According to boasts by Chinese scientists, the new hypersonic weapons China possesses could destroy the newest aircraft carrier in the American Navy. A research team on a war game software platform that China's military uses, indicated Chinese forces sinking the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier fleet with a volley of 24 hypersonic anti-ship missiles. A report in the South China Morning Post claimed the results of the hypersonic strikes, made public for the first time in a May paper published by the Chinese-language Journal of Test and Management Technology. 

Computer-generated battle scenarios are often used by military planners to game out strategies. However, they cannot be overly relied upon in real-life conflict where terrain, weather and other unforeseen factors are capable of disrupting weaponry, warn experts in the field. The strategic scenario used a platform of an attack on American vessels that had steamed toward an island claimed in the disputed South China Sea by China.

Some of the missiles in the three-wave attack, according to researchers, were fired from as far distant as the Gobi Desert. The entire play relies on a diplomatic confrontation over the waterway and its rich resources that has escalated for years in a landscape of overlapping territorial claims between regional nations and an increasingly aggressive Beijing.

With China determined to extend its reach by claiming and militarizing islands, reefs and rocks, the United States Navy has accelerated its own 'freedom of navigation' patrols in universally recognized international waters that Beijing claims as its own. China has been developing its missile arsenal rapidly, including hypersonic technology, as a reflection of its focus on building its naval capabilities.

The Chinese military had three days earlier tested a new hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile named the DF-27, according to a leak of a top-secret report, by the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff intelligence directorate, several months back. The DF-27, according to the document, possessed a high probability of capacity to evade U.S. ballistic missile defence, designed to boost Beijing's ability to strike large parts of the Pacific. That would include the U.S. territory of Guam, and its strategic military base.

China last year deployed versions of the new missile capable of attacking land targets and ships. Also revealed was that the DF-27 has increased potential as a "carrier killer" vastly out-performing its predecessors. Researchers from the North University of China in the latest war game, concluded that almost every U.S. surface vessel was shattered by the hypersonic attack and sank eventually.

USS Gerald R. Ford Aircraft Carrier (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Oops, Did We Do THAT, Again?!

"If this is really a police station from China, they can use the funds to expand their network and their connections."

"This is also one way to monitor the many international Chinese students that are here [on a study visa in Canada]."

Benjamin Fung, McGill University professor

"[Beijing uses the United Front Work Department] to stifle criticism, infiltrate foreign political parties, diaspora communities, universities and multinational corporations."

Public Safety Canada 2021 memorandum

"Getting funding in Canada legitimizes the group and provides it more of a foothold."

"It can obviously strengthen it, it can obviously get it closer to fundraising activities and give it more opportunities for influencing people."

Dennis Molinaro, former national security analyst

The Centre Sino-Québec in Brossard denies the RCMP's allegation that it could in fact be operating as a kind of police station for the Chinese government. (CBC)

 

Service a la Famille Chinoise du Grand Montreal (SFCGM), a charity based in Montreal advertising itself as a social resource from Chinese immigrants to Canada, is under investigation by the RCMP to clarify whether it is, as suspected, hosting a secret Chinese 'police station'. These police stations have been popping up all over the world, wherever expatriate Chinese have immigrated and taken out citizenship, from Europe, to North America. 

Those that were discovered in the United States have been summarily shut down by US authorities. Those in Canada are being monitored, some but not all shuttered by government. It has now been revealed that Canada's Liberal-led government has seen fit since 2020 to support the charity financially. Funding, according to experts on Chinese foreign interference that may certainly have aided those acting on behalf of Beijing to expand the network of the Chinese Communist Party in Canada. And in the process 'legitimizing' it.

According to the RCMP, the charitable organization may be the host of one of two secret Chinese 'police stations' in Quebec. Billing themselves as promoting initiatives for the Chinese community in Canada's well-being, it is also understood that these police agents aggressively harass Canadian-Chinese citizens who are critical of Beijing, attempting to bully them to return to China to face charges of treason. These are Canadian citizens who live in fear of being watched, who receive threatening messages. And who are obliquely informed their families back in China may suffer.

The RCMP, Canada's national police force, has an investigation underway of the organization, part of a large probe whose purpose is to "detect and perturb criminal activities supported by a foreign state that can threaten the safety of people living in Canada". Because of its charitable status, the SFCGM is legally required to file financial records which reveal that the government of Canada funded a total of $200,000 in public funds in the last reported fiscal year.

 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick (Justin Trudeau) and AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File (Xi JingPing

 

This funding is tracked through the auspices of a federal government grants and contributions database listing contributions from Employment and Social Development Canada as well, as far back as 2018, meant to support summer program youth employment. Other contributions support the organization's New Horizons for Seniors program meant to train seniors in Quebec's Chinese community in the use of online communication tools "in order to maintain their contact with the community and their families".

All of which sounds innocent enough on the surface, yet an analysis by pro-democracy group Action Free Hong Kong maintains that the programs are a means by which secret Chinese police stations build their networks. Critics of the Chinese Communist Party, according to Professor Benjamin Fung of McGill University, have been aware for years of an "underground" influence network in Canada for the Chinese Communist Party.  He was himself, he explained, a target of harassment.

For its part, the charity leadership questioned why the RCMP "would publicly name two community centres serving the Chinese communities in Quebec, causing serious and potentially irreparable harm to the community", calling for respect of the "presumption of innocence". Senator Yuen Pau Woo called on the RCMP to "provide information, clarity, and in the meantime, don't create more problems for the community".

A recent expose in the Toronto Star cited Chinese media reports in 2015 that the charity in question was designated an Overseas Chinese Service Centre by China's Overseas Chinese Affairs Office (which itself  is part of China's controversial United Front Work Department, a designation that generally accompanies Chinese government funding). Dennis Molinaro, expert on Chinese foreign interference, pointed out that organizations acting at Beijing's behest often seek foreign government funding for optical legitimacy.

In the last three reported fiscal years, SFCGM reported over $4.46 million in government funding, the bulk from Quebec's Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration. The department, according to a spokesperson, "recently decided to halt all remaining contracts with SFCGM". The same department cut close to $1 million in reoccurring funding to the organization, resulting from an audit that examined SFCGM's governance, "sound management" and reporting.

According to the Spanish human rights organization Safeguard Defenders, the police stations, of which Safeguard identified over 100 in over 50 countries, serve to "persuade" people whom Chinese authorities claim are fugitives, to return to China, to face charges.

A view inside the Service à la Famille Chinoise du Grand Montréal, one of two Montreal-area locations under investigation by the RCMP for being possible “police stations” run by the Chinese government. Photo by Allen McInnis/Postmedia

The U.S. Retreats from the Middle East in Favour of Navel-Gazing Introspection

"We're sitting still, and the Chinese, the Russians, Iran, North Korea, and several others, are moving to shore up their relations and threaten us in a lot of different places... It's an indication that the Saudis and others are [also] trying to hedge their bets with China and Russia, because they don't think the United States has the resolve and the fortitude necessary to do what they need to do to protect the world against Iran and its intentions."

"The Chinese have a strategy they've been following... We kind of wander around from day to day."

Former US National Security Advisor John R. Bolton

 

"[Saudi Arabia is signalling that] they will act to secure their own national interest as the region and the world around them changes."

"Mohammed bin Salman is thinking long term and assessing the world Saudi Arabia will be navigating into mid-century and in that world China likely looms larger than the U.S. in all manner of ways."

Kristian Ulrichsen, fellow for the Middle East, Baker Institute, Rice University

 

"Thanks to the lack of leadership and the vacuum that the Biden administration has created -- and appears continuing to create on the global stage, the new axis of Iran-China-Russia has been shaped with Beijing, Moscow and the ruling mullahs -- rather than the brutalized people of Iran."

"The Axis is seizing leadership of the new world order, or -- if the world's communists manage to defeat the world's democrats, as they seem tenaciously determined to do -- it will be, more accurately, the new world disorder."

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, president of the International American Council on the Middle East

If the US further pulls out of Asia, the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East, the vacuum created will be filled by the new axis of China-Russia-Iran. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Iran's then President Hassan Rouhani in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. (Photo by Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP via Getty Images)

 A spurned lover looks elsewhere for validation and comfort. And that is what has happened between the United States and Saudi Arabia. A new world order appears to be emerging; the United States steadily withdrawing from its dominant position in the Middle East and elsewhere, and the contestants for the status of new world powers, moving in to fill the vacuum. The withdrawal under three American presidents; Obama, Trump and Biden has had a disequilibrating effect; the political/economic colossus that is China seeks to mediate the chaos. With a view needless to say of consolidating its ambitions.

 

Washington seems well prepared now to fully vacate its traditional position of main mediator in the Middle East, where the 21st century saw the United States as the essential puppeteer of the region long after France and Britain abandoned their colonialist clutch. It was, of course, oil that brought the U.S. to the Middle East, and clinched its patron relationship with Saudi Arabia, protecting its energy interests. Times change and so does energy extraction technology.

 

Where in the first decade of the 21st century political occupation of the region was critical in Washington's heavy dependency on Saudi oil, Riyadh's part of the deal was a fairly steady supply of American weaponry and above all, a reliable partner for security. Relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran have traditionally been adversarial; although a minority Shi'ite sect, as opposed to the majority Sunni that characterized most Arab countries, Aryan Persia cast a jealous eye on the Kingdom's custodianship of Mecca and Medina.

 

The Iranian Republic imagines itself recast to its former glory as the Islamic powerhouse of the Middle East, eyeing Saudi Arabia's leadership in an open clash of sectarian and tribal animosity. The final break that took place seven years ago led to the final strain in their diplomatic relationship. When Iran planned and supported a Houthi-proxy rebellion in Yemen, forcing the legitimate government out of Sana'a and splitting the country in a violent civil war Saudi Arabia entered with a Sunni coalition to oppose the Houthi presence. 

Now that the U.S. no longer depends on Saudi oil since its own shale and horizontal drilling oil extraction revolution has made it independently oil-sufficient, the ties that bound frayed. Nor did it help that President Joe Biden was hostile to the Saudi heir-apparent and now de-facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, accusing him of ordering the murder of the Saudi dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi, at the Saudi diplomatic mission in Turkey.

Describing MbS as "a pariah" once the CIA reached the conclusion that the crown price had ordered the 2018 assassination, the message was clear; Washington could no longer be relied upon to remain the staunch friend it once had been, just as before the Biden tenure, then-President Obama abandoned U.S. support for then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, and gave full support to his replacement by a ''democratically elected' Mohamed Morsi, leader of the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

More latterly, top diplomats from Iran and Saudi Arabia, the two signal regional archrivals, arrived to Beijing in confirmation of the resumption of relations, a historic meeting and agreement that China brokered as new peacemaker and global authority, moving to a position of influence in the Middle East in Washington's absence. Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Saudi foreign minister, was photographed smiling beside his Chinese and Iranian counterparts Qin Gang and Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

So much for the plans of the still-sole superpower whose intention it was to pivot away from the Middle East in favour of confronting China over its military and economic influence in the Asia-Pacific. The U.S. was focused on extracting itself from endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Saudi leadership, having had one too many lectures on human rights and with the realization that a once reliable security partner had withdrawn, looked elsewhere for reassurance in protection of their interests.

 

In March of 2023 Chinese President Xi Jinping introduced a new slogan to outline what he envisaged as the new foreign policy mantra of"Xiplomacy". China, Mr. Xi explained, should be 'determined, proactive and dare to fight', once he was sworn in for his third administrative term. In February, China revealed it had an agreement for Iran and Saudi Arabia to restore their diplomatic relations; a diplomatic coup that surprised Washington.

 

April brought an announcement that Saudi Arabia was partnering with The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a China-led security bloc. These deepening ties with Beijing represent a shifting market for oil exports where China has become the main importer of Saudi oil, buying 1.75 million barrels per day, in 2022. This international game of musical chairs is now in full play. From full-throttle world warden, the United States has withdrawn to navel-gazing introspection. 

 

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud; Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang. West Asia News Agency/Handout via Reuters

"Saudi Arabia has no interest in any war in the Gulf region. The failure of the U.S. maximum pressure policy on Iran, Tehran’s policy of increasing uranium enrichment, and Israel’s threats to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities have precariously placed the region on the verge of war. Saudi Arabia does not want to be part of this escalation that will undermine its security and delay its social and economic transformation. An opening with Iran sends a clear message to the Iranians, the United States, and Israel that the Kingdom is not willing to risk direct war with its neighbor."

"...When it comes to Iran, Saudi Arabia’s security priorities are concerned with the Islamic Republic’s support for Shiite groups, mainly in Yemen and Iraq, in addition to its advanced conventional missile program. Those two priorities are not part of the talks between the United States and their European partners with Iran. While Saudi Arabia is fully aware that Iran won’t put restrictions on its missile program, it believes that normalization of relations is an alternative path that might contribute to the region’s stability, especially in Iraq and Yemen."

Abdolrasool Divsallar and Hesham Alghannam, The Cairo Review of Global Affairs

 

Xi Jinping Thought : Core Ideology

"Whether it's exams for Chinese, chemistry or politics, it has to cite quotes from the 'boss' to promote core ideology."

"They've enhanced patriotic education -- ideas such as attacking Taiwan, or anti-U.S. and pro-Russia messages with a clear slant."

"Students have become very anti-American as a result."

Anonymous Chinese schoolteacher

 

"The danger for Xi Jinping is that he ends up with officials who are less disposed to tell him the bad news [when he selects only loyalists to the Poliboro]."

"[By any accounting he suffers from] bad emperor syndrome."'

Kevin Rudd, former Australian Prime Minister 

"China makes its own rules because it's so big; when you are that big you get to [do that]."

U.K.-based Dimon Liu, exiled human rights activist

China's President Xi Jinping (L) walks with members of the Chinese Communist Party's new Politburo Standing Committee, the nation's top decision-making body, as they meet the media in the Great Hall of the People. Photograph: Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Images

 

It's official, Xi Jinping is emperor for life, no small thing in a country with a 1.4 billion population base. A country that portrays itself as powerfully entitled to land, sea and air in areas in contention with its neighbours, and a leader who believes the East and South China Seas are China's else why would they be named for China? A leader determined to coerce or dynamically force Taiwan to reenter the warm fold of China's possessive embrace. Above all, a country entitled to absorb Tibet and to persecute by 'training' the subversives who are Muslim within China.

Obviously most Han Chinese must think of Mr. Xi as their emperor since his likenesses are to be viewed in every government office, productive enterprise, private home, public space, and that includes Buddhist temples and Christian churches. Billboards across the country reflect his visage. His personal philosophy -- Xi Jinping Thought -- is extolled in red propaganda banners erected in towns and villages across the country. In Uyghur detention camps inmates must wish Xi a long life before they are permitted to eat.

A decade of Xi rule has created a new world within China, where power has been consolidated by isolating political rivals, locking dissidents away, and enacting unprecedented new rules and regulations into immutable law; his doctrine now enshrined in the constitution. Xi succeeded by carefully crafting the belief that he is the essential core of everything China and Chinese. His recently enacted coronation for a third unprecedented term has made history.

At the recently concluded convention where no other conceivable candidate to contest Xi for the presidency appeared, he was confirmed in his entitlement to remain China's guide and mentor emperor of historical distinction where he selected solely loyalists for the seven-member Politboro Standing Committee that will unquestioningly bow to his will.

Still from Video: 'High drama' as Xi's predecessor led out of the meeting

During the closing ceremony when the purpose of the convention had concluded, Xi sat stone-faced as his immediate predecessor was 'escorted' from the stage, confused and confounded. Had he failed to whisper his congratulations to his permanent successor? Xi will brook no rivalries, not the merest appearance of anyone else with pretensions to greatness; not the influential, the wealthy, his potential rival/critics. 

Status will not protect anyone even those of power, influence and riches from suddenly disappearing from the world stage. Express a silent dissent and the walls close in becoming prison cells. Like tycoon Ren Zhiqiang or tech entrepreneur extraordinaire Jack Ma. Critical to the future of China, children six and up are required to study their president's doctrine at school.

 

Beijing's dictates on COVID-19 extermination are irreversible; it will be conquered thanks to Xi's immutable zeor-COVID dictate, complete with snap lockdowns, mandatory testing and contact tracing. China's homegrown vaccines only allowed; no more-effective Western COVID vaccines permitted into the country; reliance only upon the far less-effective home product. COVID lockdowns as  efficient a rehearsal tool in complete population control as any for Mr. Xi.

Protest groups suddenly discovered their contact tracing codes had turned red, confining them to their homes, barring them from public areas. The tracing codes transformed into a tool to restrict freedom of movement, punishing dissenters for their effrontery in questioning the wisdom of President Xi. Under the guise of public health; no need to physically place anyone in prison.

 

At 69, Xi has has surpassed the informal retirement age of 68 and could be in a position for life-long rule | Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

 

 

Foreign Actor Interference Activity : China/Canada

"[Support for Chinese] reunification [with Taiwan is a] sacred mission of all Chinese sons and daughters at home and abroad."

"Chinese Canadians overseas will firmly support the Chinese government's political stance and fight against any external forces that try to split and undermine China's unity."

Chinese Canadian association joint declaration, Dawa News

"[Chinese Canadians consider Taiwan and China to be] one family. So why do we organize activities like this? Because we still have feelings for our country of origin and the hometowns we grew up in."

"We don't want to see people on both sides of the [Taiwan] strait to continue to argue with each other."

Pifeng Hu, honorary president, Peace and Development Forum of Canada, Richmond, British Columbia

"Let me ask you a question: Will Canadians agree if Quebec wants to be independent? Will the United Kingdom be happy if Scotland wants to be independent?"

"You can't have that double standard [toward China]."

"[U.S. Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Taiwan was a] publicity stunt [designed to pull China into war]."

"I was once told by other Chinese immigrants to go back to China. I replied, it's totally fine that you dislike my opinions. However, it's my personal choice to stay here or to leave."

Hilbert Yiu, former chairman, Chinese Benevolent Association of Vancouver

"[Canada should] pause and think [and back off from being a cheerleader for the United States]."

"We are departing from our traditional role as peacemakers."

"In the past, Canada had been unbiased when there was a conflict between nationals or political entities."

"[1.8 million Chinese Canadians would be] disgusted [if Taiwan was used as a pawn in conflict]."

David Choi, national executive chair, National Congress of Chinese Canadians

 

Canada has a significant number of Chinese-Canadians integrated into its general population comprised of people from all over the world, as a country of immigrants. With greater numbers of immigrants emigrating to Canada from their home countries globally on an annual basis, not to mention the tens of thousands of refugees who are also accepted as landed immigrants (and in good time, citizens) of this country where a cornucopia of ethnic groups and a babel of languages can be seen and heard on the streets of any Canadian city.

Chinese have a long history of citizenship in Canada. Originally brought over as a hard-working labour base in the 19th century when the country began its unification program of railroads from coast to coast to coast, a long, arduous project that included cutting tunnels and laying rails through the Rocky Mountains and the Coastal Mountains of Alberta and British Columbia. When Chinese later wanted to immigrate, a steep 'head tax' to dissuade them was applied by a racist government that wanted only white Europeans.

 

In the last several decades however, China has called upon its expatriate community to heed the call of the motherland by supporting the government in Beijing's surreptitious methods of gaining influence and aiding China in its long-range plans of pulling countries into its economic, social and political orbit.  Confucius Institutes were installed in universities across the country eager for investment, where Chinese history, customs and language would be taught. A potential academic bonus screening a bid for increased Communist Party of China influence.

China's increasingly tyrannical demands on other nations for unquestioned respect despite its human rights abuses in Tibet and Xinjiang, its clever manipulation of consumer markets, wiping industrial production off the map for most countries that saw its blue-collar jobs disappearing to Chinese lower wage economy, Beijing's strident belligerence in the South and East China seas reflecting its territorial ambitions to its neighbours' deficit, and its slow and steady acquisition of the world's rare earth resources while calling upon Chinese abroad to support Beijing's ambitions through the Belt and Road and other initatives have put the West at odds with China.

 

China's abrogation of the treaty it signed promising a fifty-year autonomy for Hong Kong, placed the world on notice that the population-and-trade colossus was serious about its expansionist plans. It was clear that Taiwan was next in line to be drawn directly into Beijing's sphere of control. A long-autonomous, resourceful, wealthy democracy, Taiwanese and their government have no wish to accede to Beijing's demand for unification.  In presenting an aggressive agenda toward the island of Taiwan, defiant of the island nation's refusal, China's threats and bullying tactics have turned the eyes of the West in its direction.

In the wake of Nancy Pelosi's senior U.S. diplomatic visit to Taiwan that aroused Beijing to a rage of threats and violent intimidation, Canadian parliamentarians have also announced plans of a trade mission to Taiwan. Leading to Beijing trying to exert pressure on Canada's government not to recognize Taiwan as an independent state. Accordingly, 87 Chinese groups signed a letter published in a Chinese-Canadian newspaper pledging fealty on behalf of all Chinese-Canadians, to Beijing's assertion of 'one China' including Taiwan.

The truth is, by no means do these groups represent the best interests of Canadian-Chinese as a whole. Chinese who originated from mainland China are represented by these groups, but certainly not Chinese originally from Hong Kong, or Taiwanese Chinese n Canada, much less Tibetans and Uyghurs from China all of whom deplore Beijing's political trajectory. Taiwan denies it has ever been part of China and that it will ever in the future join China.

To use Quebec and Scotland's positions of discontent with the nations they are linked to as a comparison with Taiwan is ingenuous at best, deliberately misconstruing their positions, since if through a referendum either population voted for separation, it would be honoured by the nations involved, albeit sadly and reluctantly. Beijing has no such intentions; instead it plans a military invasion of Taiwan to unseat its government and absorb the island state just as it did Tibet.

"And again, I'm not saying (organizations were repeating views at the behest of foreign governments) that's happening in this case, but this is where my concern is."

:What I would like to be sure of is that all organizations are expressing their own personal views, and not passing on the views of another unnamed actor because then that, I think, is problematic."

David Muilroney, former Canadian ambassador to China

"[The Dawa news letter forwarded to her by many Taiwanese Canadians expressed views] not acceptable at all by all overseas Taiwanese."

"I don't know if the strategy is useful for others, but it's useless to Taiwanese Canadians."

Angel Liu, director-general, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, Vancouver

A soldier holds a Taiwan national flag during a military exercise in Hsinchu County, northern Taiwan.. (Chiang Ying-ying / AP)

Her Excellency Madam Pelosi

"There is no justification for this extreme, disproportionate and escalatory military response. Now, they've taken dangerous acts to a new level." 

"We will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken

"I heard that U.S. Secretary of State Blinken held his news conference and spread some misinformation and was not speaking truthfully."

"We wish to issue a warning to the United States: do not act rashly, do not create a greater crisis."

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi

 

"Our visit is part of our broader trip to the Pacific — including Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan — focused on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance. Our discussions with our Taiwanese partners will focus on reaffirming our support for the island and promoting our shared interests, including advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific region. America’s solidarity with Taiwan is more important today than ever — not only to the 23 million people of the island but also to millions of others oppressed and menaced by the PRC." 

"[The world is facing] a choice between democracy and autocracy."

"America's determination to preserve democracy, here in Taiwan and around the world remains ironclad."

U.S. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi

"The only way out of this crisis is that the U.S. side must take measures immediately to rectify its mistakes and eliminate the grave impact of Pelosi's visit."

"[Washington should] avoid pushing China-U.S. relations down the dangerous track of conflict and confrontation."

Jing Quan, senior Chinese Embassy official, Washington

"Facing deliberately heightened military threats, Taiwan will not back down."

We will firmly uphold our nation's sovereignty and continue to hold the line of defence for democracy."

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen

Arguments began when President Joe Biden cast public doubt on the wisdom of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan by suggesting that the Pentagon saw it as too risky. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo

They both represent the same Democratic Party, the president of the United States, and the Speaker of the House. Yet somehow there appears not to have been a discussion by the two executive branches of government about Speaker Nancy Pelosi's intended trip to Taiwan. And in her statements while in Taipei, reassuring the Taiwanese that nothing has changed, America has its back, she spoke with the royal 'we' as though she and her word are imperial law.

How is it possible that when Joe Biden was asked by reporters whether Nancy Pelosi really would be visiting Taiwan as part of her trip to Eastern allies? A controversial trip certain to raise Beijing's hackles at the prospect of a high-level U.S. legislator, sufficiently elite in her position to be considered second in line to the presidency should an emergency arise, and about as diplomatically awkward given current stresses and strains between Washington and Beijing as conceivably provoking. His response was rather odd; admitting he really didn't know.

The trip, it appears, was all about Nancy Pelosi. Smiling for the cameras, being applauded for her courage in inviting an outraged response from Beijing who, after all, promised there would be one -- and there was. Ingratiating herself personally with the political leaders of of America's Asian allies; Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, South Korea, feted everywhere. South Korea's president a bit more cautious; too busy holidaying to meet with her.

And what did she accomplish, glad-handing her Asian counterparts, smiling broadly, promising the largess of American patronage and protection to China's near-abroad neighbours, nervous about Beijing's strident assertiveness in its territorial ambitions and power plays? Her visit, despite words of gratitude from Taipei, placed the country in more imminent peril from a furiously-snubbed Beijing. Of a visit guaranteed to be the ultimate in provocation and changing nothing between the U.S. and Taiwan.

Leading China to launch a series of military operations including live fire within Taiwan's territorial airspace. It will take some time before tensions between the two world's largest trading partners and competitors for the title of dominating world power to relax to a returned working level. The People's Liberation Army Air Force flew a contingent of 21 warplanes close to Taiwan, causing a responding scramble from the Taiwanese air force.

China's Eastern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army revealed its military conducted air and sea drills to the north, southwest and east of Taiwan "to test the troops' joint combat capabilities".  U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured Beijing that Washington does not seek a crisis over the unfortunate trip to Taiwan by Ms. Pelosi. Which failed to stop four missiles fired by China over Taipei and others landing in Japan's exclusive economic zone.

If Speaker Pelosi's grand plan was to foment further turmoil for America's allies in the East, her smiling presence certainly did that, and more. "We have said from the start that our representation here is not about changing the status quo in Taiwan or the region", she said reassuringly, after having done her level best to do all that, and more, roiling the region regally.

The Columnist

Beijing Bridling at Interference in Its 'Internal Affairs'

"[In all likelihood, China viewed Russia's invasion of Ukraine failing to gain its objective swiftly as] you don't achieve quick decisive victories with underwhelming force."

"Our sense is that it probably affects less the question of whether the Chinese leadership might choose some years down the road to use force to control Taiwan, but how and when they would do it."

"[The risks] become higher, it seems to us, the further into this decade that you get." 

"I suspect the lesson that the Chinese leadership and military are drawing is that you’ve got to amass overwhelming force if you’re going to contemplate that in the future."

"[China also has likely learned that it has to] control the information space [and] do everything you can to shore up your economy against the potential for sanctions."

William Burns, director, U.S. Central Intelligence Agency

President Tsai Ing-wen visits army reservists on exercises. The undertrained force has to be reformed to provide resilience against an attack by China  Ann Wang/Reuters

"[It would] severely undermine China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, gravely impact the foundation of China-U.S. relations and send a seriously wrong signal to Taiwan independence forces [should the United States continue to interfere in China's internal politics]."

Zhao Lijiant, spokesperson, Chinese Foreign Ministry

 

"[Beijing still prefers] peaceful reunification."

"[The US supports] independence [forces in Taiwan, where president Tsai Ing-wen has asserted the island’s separate identity]."

"No conflict and no war is the biggest consensus between China and the United States. [But the United States is] hollowing out and blurring [its stated policy of recognizing only Beijing]."

"Only by adhering strictly to the one-China policy, only by joining hands to constrain and oppose Taiwan independence, can we have a peaceful reunification."

Qin Gang, China’s ambassador to the United States

Taiwanese soldiers hold military drills in Taipei Credit: Ann Wang/Reuters

 China has been aggressively harassing Taipei, entering its air space as a warning that it is growing impatient with the island state's adamant refusal to rejoin the mainland. Beijing's ongoing efforts to isolate Taiwan on the world stage, refusing it recognition as a sovereign state, in the United Nations and in international diplomatic relations is just the initial step in its campaign to return Taiwan to China's tender care. Taiwan is alert to the imminence of an invasion.

The tension between mainland China and its breakaway republic is steadily increasing, thanks to China's more belligerent overtures. Now that Beijing has consolidated its premature hold over Hong Kong, Taiwan is next on its agenda. Xi Jinping makes no secret about his determination to bring Taiwan back into the fold, from its status as a defiant, breakaway republic. He did not hesitate to revoke Hong Kong's semi-autonomous status, despite a signed agreement that status would be in place for a fifty year period.

And nor will he allow world opinion and the censure along with an increased threat not only of economic sanctions imposed by the United States should Beijing move precipitously to regain what it feels it has unjustly lost, but the prospect of a wider conflict should the United States engage in supporting Taiwan with U.S. military intervention, as U.S. President Joe Biden recently asserted.

President Joe Biden, during a recent trip to Japan, told a reporter he was willing to use force to defend Taiwan  Eugene Hoshiko/Pool/EPA-EFE

 

 For Beijing and its president, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the goal somewhat similar in nature to Beijing's own, represents a test case whose prosecution and outcome presents as a lesson in what not to do for a successful and timely outcome in its plans for Taiwan. Moscow's 'strategic failure' is a lesson gained for Beijing, a primary observer directly related to its own, similar plans.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - about as senior an American diplomatic presence as any next to the president himself -- plans to visit Taiwan in the coming month, despite that the U.S. military has cautioned her against such plans. Her original plan to visit Taipei in April was postponed when she tested positive for COVID-19. With news of her renewed intention to visit the region, stopping at Japan and Vietnam as well as Taiwan, Beijing has warned of 'repercussions'.

"We are indeed in the midst of very large-scale and thorough discussions both among ourselves and with the Americans right now about the things we need to do." 

"We are exploring a range of radically different ideas for making our country resilient, to build the features we need in wartime."

"Our goal is to be ready between 2025 and 2027 [for China's invasion and attempted occupation of Taiwan to secure 'reunification']."

Senior (unnamed) Taiwanese official

Taipei wants to retain military capabilities, such as its F-5 fighter jets, to counter Chinese incursions  Ritchie B Tongo/EPA-EFE

"It is true that the U.S.-China relationship is in a precarious and possibly dangerous place [given ongoing friction in bilateral ties and uncertainty related to China's domestic politics]."

\"I think that the United States should articulate a clear and consistent policy toward Taiwan and cross-strait issues."

"We have had a significant amount of confusion in U.S. policy that has led China to question what our intentions are."

Bonnie Glaser, director, Asia Programme, German Marshall Fund